A major goal of this laboratory is the elucidation of neural mechanisms underlying the development of normal behavior and equally to understand the mechanisms responsible for recovery of function and plasticity following central nervous system injuries, particularly those originating in infancy. The approach is broadly multidisciplinary, involving behavioral, anatomical, electrophysiological, endocrinological, pharmacological and biochemical techniques. The experimental subject is the rhesus monkey, which because of its protracted span of postnatal development and its remarkable capacity for restitution of function following cortical lesions of early onset is unsurpassed as a model of normal and disordered human development. The focus of these studies is on the prefrontal granular cortex, a slowly maturing neocortical region of the primate brain particularly appropriate for studies on the sequence, duration, and correlation of structural and functional events in ontogeny.